It has been reported that according to the National Safety Council—Injury Facts 2011 Edition; U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Electronic Injury surveillance system that approximately 380,800 door related injuries occur in the United States ever year. Shockingly, statistics show that door related injuries occur at a rate of 31,000 month, 1,000 every day, 42 every hour and 1 every 1.4 minutes. According to one study; Clinical Pediatric Study: “Children Treated in the United States Emergency Departments for Door-related Injuries, 1999-2008”, approximately eighty percent of door-related injuries occur to children in the home and approximately forty two percent of these children were under the age of four. Of these injuries, forty two percent occur at the leading edge of the door. Thousands of children each year are sent to the hospital with fractures or broken bones because their fingers were caught in slamming doors.
Door injuries are very serious, disastrous, and potentially life changing. Amputations are a triple threat involving loss of function, loss of sensation, and loss of body image causing postoperative complications such as psychological problems, phantom pain, adverse emotional health, and needed psychosocial support. Individuals who earn their living from motor skills are especially vulnerable to amputations. Youth are particularly sensitive to peer acceptance and rejection. Amputation in the preadolescent or adolescent age group is a great threat to emerging sexual identity. The elderly are also likely to have fingers amputated in doors as many times they lose their awareness of surroundings, and balance. Elderly amputees are at a greater risk for psychiatric disturbances such as depression, social isolation, new financial stringencies, and occupational limitations with complicate the adjustment to serious door hand injuries or finger amputations.
The true incidence of door-related injuries is underestimated because not all door-related injuries are treated in hospital Emergency Departments and urgent care centers do not report statistics. Of the reported cases, tens of thousands of door injuries result in finger amputations to children. The inventor believes one door injury is too many. Embodiments of the present invention can prevent these injuries.
The present invention will not only prevent little finger door amputations and hand injuries by unintended door closings, but will mitigate real potential legal and financial liability to many public and private facilities. There are many potential legal theories under which these public and private facilities having known and foreseeably unsafe doors can be found liable including: premises liability, landowner-occupier duties, general negligence, attractive nuisance doctrine, and products liability. For example, under the attractive nuisance doctrine, where the trespass of a child is likely, a landowner owes a duty to exercise ordinary care to avoid a reasonable foreseeable risk of harm posed by dangerous artificial conditions, which result from the child's inability to appreciate the risk of harm. Many heavy commercial doors in commercial buildings readily attract children. Some of these doors and door surrounds have attractive shinny metallic finishes or bright colored paint baiting the eyes and fingers of child. Doors are easily accessible to the exploring fingers of young children who are unaware and cannot appreciate the dangerous condition.
For at least the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a door safety closure device that will prevent hands and fingers from being crushed, injured, or amputated between the leading edge of the door and door surround. Moreover, the invention will prevent the economic loss of serious door injuries resulting from loss of livelihood, increased government disability payments, and diminished functional capacity of the amputees. Further, the invention will mitigate financial and legal liability that is created under legal causes of action filed under premise liability, landowner-occupier liability, general negligence, attractive nuisance doctrine, or products liability law suits.